The video shows a speech of Stephen Schneider, who was Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University, a Co-Director at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Schneider served as a consultant to federal agencies and White House staff in the Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

Early certainity – „It was out there“

He points out, that there was early certainity of the global warming and environment change, already 1970 people were sure of some following theories:

That science is sure, that atmospheric CO2 will build up and will be a potential problem

Controversies: where are we in 10 or 20 years? Which areas will be better, which will be worse?

Scientists talked to the Congress, ministers, national and international meetings happened.

„It was out there.“ (Schneider 2010)

Why didn’t they succeed?

There are different special interests out there, and some people are collecting stuff out of the context:

„carbon dioxide is natural“

„carbon dioxide is what plants seed“

„it i spart of the regular life cycle of earth“

„there is absolutely no point in try to controll the emission on greenhouse gases“

„life on our planet can’t even exist without greenhouse gases“

Some scientists say, that the global warming may be caused by some changes by the sun, or the ocean or changes in cloud cover, or other changes that we may not understand.

What Schneider is aware of, is:

Insect born diseases will explode (for example Malaria)

Where it’s dry, it’s likely to become much drier.

We’re likely to see hundrets of millions what we will call environmental refugees

It has the potential to escalate into the largest global catastrophy man kind has ever known

Climate change could take on the life of it’s own.global warming will become a run-away-train.

We’ll have 8 degrees hotter, and basically non of the crops will grow

civilisation can break down

Further, he talks about tipping points like Greenland: “We know for sure, they are there, we don’t know for sure where they are. This is not just an academic exercise, this is something we have got to get people deeply engaged in, because we are talking about the sustainibility for their children, grandchildren and the rest of nature.”